Sightlines · reception
How Conclave was received
2024 · Edward Berger · Conclave on Sightlines
The arc
A polite awards-season hit in 2024 (it won the Adapted Screenplay Oscar), it got a wild second act in 2025 when Pope Francis actually died and a real conclave began — suddenly it was a current-events explainer, and streaming viewership spiked overnight.
What’s debated
Is it a serious prestige drama or gloriously campy trash in Oscar-bait clothing — and the ending, which fans either call the boldest swing of the year or the moment it loses them entirely.
Its footprint
It became gay Twitter and Letterboxd's favorite meme machine — vaping cardinals, Isabella Rossellini's curtsy, endless 'the drama of it all' jokes — a papal election reimagined as high-camp office politics.
Where it stands
An instant Letterboxd darling: the rare Oscar movie the internet adopted as a comfort-rewatch, filed under 'prestige camp' alongside the great middlebrow thrillers for adults.
Did you know? When Pope Francis died in April 2025, Conclave's streaming viewership reportedly surged nearly 300% in a single day, as viewers used the film as a crash course in how a real papal conclave works.